Dick Van Dyke announces presidential endorsement on eve of US election

‘Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm,’ said the acting legend in a video

Hollywood icon Dick Van Dyke has announced that he’ll be voting for Kamala Harris during the historic US election on Tuesday (5 November).

The 98-year-old actor, famed for his roles in family musicals like Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang confirmed his decision on Monday (4 November), just hours before the majority of Americans go to polls to vote for the 47th president.

Harris has already received a flurry of celebrity endorsements with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford and Jennifer Aniston all pledging their support to the vice president.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been backed by people like Elon Musk, Hulk Hogan and Jake Paul as he looks to return to the White House.

In a video shared on his official YouTube channel, Van Dyke encouraged his fans to vote for Harris, reciting a speech that he once read alongside the great Dr Martin Luther King.

“Fifty years ago – May 31st, 1964 — I was on the podium with Dr Martin Luther King, who was addressing some of the 60,000 people in the Colosseum in LA,” he said.

“I was there to read a message written by Rod Serling, the guy who wrote The Twilight Zone. I got it out the other day and I think it means as much today, if not more, than it did then, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to read it.”

Van Dyke, who wore a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and glasses, read a short section of the original address titled “A Most Non-Political Speech”.

“Hatred is not the norm. Prejudice is not the norm. Suspicion, dislike, jealousy, scapegoating, none of those are the transcendent facets of the human personality,” the actor read.

“They are diseases. They are the cancers of the soul. They are the infectious and contagious viruses that have been breeding humanity for years.

“And because they have been and because they are, is it necessary that they shall be? I think not.”

Dick Van Dyke as Bert, Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins, Karen Dotrice as Jane Banks and Matthew Garber (1956 - 1977) as Michael Banks in the Disney musical 'Mary Poppins' (Getty Images)

Van Dyke said as long as there is “one voice left to say welcome to a stranger”, “one hand outstretched to say enter and share” and “one mind remaining to think a thought of warmth and friendship” then there is still hope for humanity.

The actor also said there is “essential decency”, “basic goodness” and “preeminent dignity” in everyone.

“There will be moments of violence and expressions of hatred and an ugly echo of intolerance, but these are the clinging vestiges of a decayed past, not the harbingers of the better, cleaner future,” he continued.

“To those who tell us that the inequality of the human animal is a necessary evil, we must respond by simply saying that first, it is evil but it is not necessary.

“We prove it by reaffirming our faith. We prove it by having faith in our affirmations.”

Van Dyke concluded the speech by paraphrasing a quote from Horace Mann, saying: “Let us be ashamed to live without that victory.”

Dick Van Dyke, winner, poses at the 51st annual Daytime Emmys Awards (Getty Images)

Polls predict that Harris and Trump are virtually neck-and-neck in the race with the first results from Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where just six people live, showing that each candidate got 3 votes.

Additional reporting by PA